Zeri Will Be Nerfed - Again | RiftFeed
Not the best time to be a Zeri main

Zeri Will Be Nerfed - Again

News 17-08-2022 09:51
Withered Rose Zeri
At least her skins won't be nerfed... | © Riot Games

One would think Riot is done with continuously nerfing Zeri at this point. However, this is not the case. Today, Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison confirmed that Zeri will get yet another nerf in Patch 12.16. But why do they keep nerfing a champion with only a 46% win rate in Solo Queue?

Zeri's Performance in Pro Play

With the regular season finishing in several regions, playoffs are about to start, and players are preparing for this year's Worlds Championship.

Riot Games have been looking at the champions performing above or below average in pro play this season in order to make the game as balanced as possible for the World Championship 2022. As it turns out, Zeri is one of the champions they want to focus on.

Zeri has been performing exceptionally well this season, especially in the LCK and LPL. Let's take a look at her stats from the different regions this summer: 

Region

Win Rate

PresenceKDA
LCK

57.4%

84.6%5.8
LPL

64.8%

79.6%6.6
LEC54.5%76.1%5.1
LCS56.7%86.8%5.4


As we can see, Zeri is quite powerful and has over 50% win rate in every major region. Even though the win rate isn't as high in the LEC, we witnessed the champion's power during the last week of the regular season, where Upset carried his team to playoffs with her. You can see Upset's Zeri in action from the LEC Superweek 2022 here: 

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Is Zeri the New Ryze?

Looking at Zeri's stats outside of pro play, she only has a 46% win rate in Solo Queue. This isn't very surprising, considering how many nerfs the champion has gotten since its release. We can clearly see that this nerf is not targeted for your Solo Queue game but for pro play

This situation isn’t anything new. Ryze, for example, is a champion often seen in pro play but has one of the lowest win rates in Solo Queue because of all the nerfs he has gotten. So basically, Ryze is tough to balance in a way that works for both pro play and Solo Queue, and we are seeing similar patterns now with Zeri. 

This nerf being pro-play targeted was also confirmed by Riot's Phroxzon. On his Twitter, Phroxzon announced that the patch with Zeri's nerf will be the first "World's focused patch". It isn't only Zeri that is targeted in Patch 12.16. Also, Yuumi, Draven, and Poppy will be nerfed. 

Which Nerfs Can We Expect?

As already mentioned, Zeri already got a lot of nerfs, and people are starting to wonder what more Riot can do without completely ruining the champion. 

According to the Youtuber RyscuRiot August stated there aren't many other nerfs that can be applied to Zeri at this point and that Zeri could receive a gameplay update. On August 17, however, Riot Phroxzon came out with a more detailed update of the patch notes, which showed no signs of a gameplay update yet. So instead, Zeri will receive a nerf on her W AP Ratio, reducing it from 60% to 40%. Also, her Q AD Ratio will be nerfed from 105-125% to 100-120%.

Do you think this nerf will be the end of Zeri in Solo Queue, or do you think Riot has a plan to balance her for both Worlds and Solo Queue?

Join our Discord and let us know!

Maia Jacobsen

Hi I'm Maia, a recent University graduate from Norway, ready to work in the media field and becoming a key player in the esports and journalism sphere. That's why I started working here at Riftfeed as a content intern before...